Health-Timer in Design Philosophy

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ID:151591
 
Jan 31 2010, 3:59 pm
I'm creating an extremely addictive game. This game will be dangerously addictive and people will not want to stop playing once they start.

I'm considering creating a health-timer. As soon as you login, your timer starts counting down to 30 minutes. After your thirty minutes are up, you are automatically banned by the system for "break time" which lasts for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes you are allowed back into the game. This is to help people not be addicted and maintain healthy lifestyles as well as experience great games.

Discuss.
#1 Jan 31 2010, 4:07 pm
Don't penalize people for playing your game.
#2 Jan 31 2010, 4:10 pm
In response to Stephen001 (#1)
I don't want to ruin peoples lives.

Do you see what WoW does to some people? It turns them into mindless zombies!

http://mhviraf.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/wow-36box2-1.jpg

I don't want people going thru this much trouble just to play my game 24/7!
#3 Jan 31 2010, 4:25 pm
In response to Proteen (#2)
It's BYOND, I think you're pretty safe.
#4 Jan 31 2010, 4:42 pm
Unless you are giving out dime bags of crystal meth every time someone plays your game I think you will be OK. All your "health timer" would do is drive your player base away.
#5 Jan 31 2010, 4:46 pm
In response to Proteen (#2)
Your game will not be as good as World of Warcraft.
#6 Jan 31 2010, 10:27 pm
Proteen wrote:
I'm creating an extremely addictive game. This game will be dangerously addictive and people will not want to stop playing once they start.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
#7 Feb 1 2010, 9:10 am
In response to Stephen001 (#3)
I am only working to help and serve the goodness of BYOND by keeping players healthily.
#8 Feb 1 2010, 9:27 am
In response to Proteen (#7)
What if the players are stupid like me and decide to keep waiting, clicking join over and over again, hoping that we'll somehow break through?

Won't they do something else on the computer?
#9 Feb 1 2010, 10:16 am
In response to Proteen (#7)
I'm not sure how I can say this any other way, it won't be a problem.
#10 Feb 1 2010, 12:46 pm
In response to Wolfdude5 (#8)
What if the players, in a desperate craving for the game, decide to overthrow the established regime of their nation in order to lead a manhunt for Dan and Tom in order to torture them into getting 't3h code' for overriding your lockout mechanism? Dan manages to escape the shackles, vowing to return to save Tom when he's able to find help but Tom, in his time locked up with Dan, has grown to see the other as a possible double-agent for the other side.

Before you know it, someone has the nuclear launch codes and the Signs of the Byond Apocalypse manifest themself on the website:
-The bitstreams shall run #FF0000 with the blood of clients
-The First Hub Entry of every Byonder shall be deleted
-Lummox Jr uses 'usr' in proc
-The Anime Sea is parted and the total number of people publicly playing anime games is less than 1/3 of the total number of people signed in (my translation may be a little fuzzy; an alternate interpretation of the text is that less than 150 people will be playing Naruto GOA at a time)
-Dream Maker supports total 3d environments

As society is thrown into chaos between the dual threat of nuclear holocaust and the most addictive sensory experience ever, Tom and Dan find out that they are actually the same person but are multiple personalities. In yet another twist, they realize that it's the abandoned hub entries that manifested the destructive creation in order to regulate the worldwide digital environment from man-made pollution.

---

Altogether, unless you've found a way to combine Tetris circa the early craze years where each block contains a program window to World of Warcraft along with some sort of keyboard laced with PCP I doubt this will be an issue. Maybe...
#11 Feb 2 2010, 2:42 am
This game had wolves in it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it out, that's when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that I covered my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the game playing on my laptop and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the game on my laptop that I, like the game, am a vague and overly addictive guy who knows how to 'Stop players from playing' from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called meth. I told them no, because they didn't have enough teeth, and frankly a man with playing this shouldn't settle for the first thing that comes to him.

I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my laptop screen would show. While I was browsing WoW expansion packs, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the game I was playing, I told her I wanted her to play my game. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you Addictive game.

Pros: To addictive to stop, has a break time so I have to eat, attracts women
Cons: The break time is too long. I needed to buy another computer in order to play it more often seeing how I can't get enough nor stop.
#12 Feb 2 2010, 10:46 am
In response to Rtbbvr (#11)
Rtbbvr wrote:
I covered my girth

lulzulz
#13 Feb 2 2010, 9:53 pm
In response to EGUY (#10)
Maybe if you explained why it's so addictive you could be taken seriously. I mean really, nuclear holocaust...
#14 Feb 3 2010, 2:06 pm
In response to Gigimoi (#13)
It's so addictive due to how awesome it is.
#15 Feb 3 2010, 9:44 pm
Another way to go about this is take a design choice popular among many facebook games and have actions be set to cooldown timers. Once the player has done a certain action, that player can not take that action again until the cooldown timer is up. For example, in an RPG setting, have it so the player can only fight 10 enemies every hour. that way the player logs in for 15 minutes to fight his way through the current wave of enemies, and then either can hang around to chat, or can log out and do something else for the next 45 minutes.
#16 Feb 3 2010, 10:01 pm
In response to Redslash (#15)
*Player logs in and starts attacking enemies.* "You have reached your maximum of 10 kills this hour. You will have to wait 45 more minutes until you can kill something again." *Player logs off and never returns.*
#17 Feb 6 2010, 5:44 pm
i'd probably just... not play if i got kicked out every thirty minutes. just my two cents!

i dont play games all day til the point of no return but i do play for more than an hour at a time
#18 Feb 7 2010, 9:22 pm
Proteen wrote:
I'm considering creating a health-timer. As soon as you login, your timer starts counting down to 30 minutes. After your thirty minutes are up, you are automatically banned by the system for "break time" which lasts for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes you are allowed back into the game. This is to help people not be addicted and maintain healthy lifestyles as well as experience great games.

I can run faster, jump higher, and endure much more, and do so longer than most people I know. If I want to sit down for three days and play a game, I believe I deserve to. Developers shouldn't control my life and the games I play, only the games themselves.
#19 Feb 7 2010, 10:42 pm
Sorry to criticize but you are just assuming your game will be addictive. It may be addictive to you because you might love to abuse any little power you get but it might not be to others. If you just explain to us why'd it be so addictive we might actually believe you. So far all we got is a false accusation that your game is going to be addictive. You don't go into any detail whatsoever, not even a game type, if it's free roam, side-scrolling or what. Before you assume something, let us know why you assume it.
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